ocean basin evolution

Negative Residual Topography in Global Back‐Arc Basins Scales With Slab Dip

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Figure from Zhang et al. (2026)

Researchers measured the height of the seafloor in back-arc basins around the world after correcting for sediment, crustal structure and plate age, to work out how much of that height is due to deeper mantle processes. They found that most of these basins sit lower than expected, and this effect gets stronger where the subducting … Read more…

Geology: Submarine volcanism along shallow ridges did not drive Cryogenian cap carbonate formation – Reply

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In their comment, Gernon et al. (2024) maintain that their “shallow ridge hypothesis” for cap carbonate formation (Gernon et al., 2016) is valid, disregarding abundant evidence to the contrary. Here we address four flaws in their argument. First, their hypothesis (Gernon et al., 2016) is based on a “proof by example” argument—a logical fallacy. Evidence … Read more…